Feeling fairly good about your contributions to massive information? Then you must most likely get to know Andy Konwinski, whose resume within the area is unparalleled and who’s one in all BigDATAwire’s Folks to Look ahead to 2025.
We just lately had the pleasure of catching up with Konwinski. Right here’s what he needed to say:
BigDATAwire: You’ve had an enchanting profession with so many accomplishments: Compsci PhD from UC Berkeley, contributor to Hadoop, serving to to create Apache Spark at AMPLab, co-creator and committer of Apache Mesos venture, co-founder and VP of AI/ML at Databricks, creator of the Information + AI Summit, and co-founder and president of Perplexity. What motivates you to maintain creating new issues?
Andy Konwinski: Influence motivates me. Since turning into a mum or dad, that drive has sharpened into one thing extra pressing. I need to use no matter time, abilities, and leverage I’ve to assist transfer all of humanity ahead, sooner. For me, that begins with bringing folks collectively. I’ve realized that every little thing I’ve carried out nicely in my profession traces again to getting sensible, pushed folks in the identical room for one thing new and large to occur. I name this “massive group vitality” and it’s the movement I’m constructed for.
BDW: You train a seminar at Berkeley referred to as Analysis to Startups, together with Ali Ghodsi and Ion Stoica, amongst different Berkeley legends. Why do you suppose the variety of startups has slowed in recent times? Has technological innovation slowed or is there one thing else at play?
AK: Consider it or not, entrepreneurship nonetheless isn’t an easy path for high researchers. I believe it needs to be. We began Analysis to Startup to assist change that. The objective of the seminar is straightforward: Give educational researchers the instruments, examples, confidence, and connections to show their work into firms. We’ve had a rotating lineup of instructors and a few fairly unimaginable visitor audio system. This concept – that researchers ought to ship issues – has been a throughline in my profession. Discovery is essential, however deployment is the place the actual influence occurs. I’ve additionally labored on this with labs throughout high faculties, and I’m satisfied: the individuals who perceive the know-how most deeply can obtain the largest outcomes.
BDW: You’re scheduled to talk on the UC Berkeley School of Computing, Information Science, and Society undergraduate graduation ceremonies on Could 22. Would you care to provide us a preview?
AK: I’m actually trying ahead to it. I walked the Greek Theatre myself after I completed my PhD at Berkeley, so this feels private. Getting ready my speech has made me mirror – on constructing firms, on turning into a mum or dad, and on what actually drives me. On the core, I’m a scientist. And I imagine scientists, maybe particularly laptop scientists, have a particular position to play in what comes subsequent. My objective is to share a little bit of my very own path and, extra importantly, invite these new graduates (and the households cheering them on) to see themselves as a part of one thing greater. Our discipline has the potential to maneuver all of humanity ahead sooner, and I would like them to really feel the load and the joy of that.
BDW: You co-founded Laude Ventures in 2024. Are you able to inform us in regards to the agency? What kind of firms are you trying to put money into?
AK: We go in early through the discovery/inception part, on breakthroughs we imagine can develop into billion greenback firms. We solely work with deeply technical founders, principally research-based. That’s my very own background and my co-founders share that DNA. Laude is exclusive in that we actually are technologists investing in technologists. We’re deeply networked into academia, with a number of the finest laptop scientists on the planet as our LPs – 1 out of three have already based a $B+ firm. We introduced our debut fund, which was $150M, in December, and have been having a number of enjoyable since then. Our investments principally span deeply technical infrastructure and functions, however we’ll check out something that’s rooted in analysis or constructed by a stellar technical staff.
BDW: What are you able to inform us about your self exterior of the skilled sphere – distinctive hobbies, favourite locations, and many others.? Is there something about you that your colleagues could be stunned to study?
I really like being open air, even when I’m somewhat off form. I just lately backpacked a 28-mile stretch of the Pacific Crest Path with some pals, rolled my ankle midway by way of, and needed to limp the final 5 miles out. Fortunately one in all them had higher first-aid abilities than I did. It wasn’t precisely comfy – however truthfully, I nonetheless beloved each minute of being on the market. As profound because the AI breakthroughs of the previous few years have been, nothing compares to the way in which climbing across the mountains makes me really feel.
You’ll be able to learn the entire 2025 Folks to Watch interviews right here.
